Tatuaje Sued by Altadis USA

[G-man]

http://www.cigarinspector.com/wp-content/themes/cigarinspect/images/logoImg.png (http://www.cigarinspector.com)







Tatuaje sue (http://www.cigarinspector.com/news-of-the-week/tatuaje-sued-by-altadis-usa)

(http://www.cigarinspector.com/news-of-the-week/tatuaje-sued-by-altadis-usa)


By Inspector in News of the Week (http://www.cigarinspector.com/category/news-of-the-week) on Nov 3rd, 09

http://www.cigarinspector.com/images/misc/altadis-tatuaje.jpg
We haven't seen a huge lawsuit in the cigar industry for a while, and here it is (it's a few months old (http://forums.cigaraficionado.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6346086/m/269103056) but I thought I should share) - Goliath, Altadis USA, against David, Pete Johnson from Tatuaje (http://www.cigarinspector.com/category/tatuaje). The object of the lawsuit is the Fleur de Lys symbol, present both in the Tatuaje logo and in the logo of non-Cuban Montecristo cigars.
With all the lawyers Altadis have and considering the fact that they used the Fleur de Lys before Tatuaje, for me it is unlikely that Pete Johnson will be able to win this case. Some fervent supporters of Tatuaje have already created a petition to boycott Altadis products (http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/boycottaltadis/).
What is your opinion? Is Altadis right to protect its intellectual property (is the fleur de lys a defendable property?) or they are just jealous of Pete Johnson's success?


What are your thoughts ?
My thoughts are why is a giant like Altadis USA so hell bent on breakin a small Guys balls! F in Greed!

[MaledettoToscano]

Seems very much a case of big playground bully hitting on the small guy :mad:, but I'm no lawyer.

Reading through the comments on CigarInspector it would seem that the Fleur de Lys is a non patentable image in any case, and you just need to read the entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur_de_Lys#Earliest_usage) on the Encyclopedia Galactica... ehm Wikipedia, to see why. If that's true I really don't see what grounds Altadis has, I mean it's not like anyone mixes up Montecristo and Tatuaje when buying stogies?

Maybe someone on this forum can elighten us on the legal reasoning... any lawyers around :eek::behindsofa:?

[celsis]

The sensible thing would be for Pete's layer to point out that the fleur de lys is a symbol of the French monarchy and as such, is used everywhere. If anything, Pete's version of the fleur de lys is eminently different from Altadis.

What else does Altadis make? I detest the American version of Montes anyway. They are soooo inferior to the Habanas.

[G-man]

The sensible thing would be for Pete's layer to point out that the fleur de lys is a symbol of the French monarchy and as such, is used everywhere. If anything, Pete's version of the fleur de lys is eminently different from Altadis.

What else does Altadis make? I detest the American version of Montes anyway. They are soooo inferior to the Habanas.

Trouble

[Lee Nub]

There's a list on the cigarafficianado forum thread about this and altadis brands, I think I read they own all the romeo y julieta dominican brands, but I also read they are major shareholders in habanos

[G-man]

There's a list on the cigarafficianado forum thread about this and altadis brands, I think I read they own all the romeo y julieta dominican brands, but I also read they are major shareholders in habanos

Trouble